


The one where Miles refuses to leave Peter behind and how that changes everything and nothing at all.

by TheCuriousCat



Category: Spider-Man (Video Game 2018), Spider-Man (Video Game 2020), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: BAMF Miles Morales, BAMF Peter Parker, Bisexual Miles Morales, Confident Peter Parker, Cute Miles Morales, F/F, F/M, Female Miles Morales, Hurt Peter Parker, Protective Peter Parker, Slow Burn, Spider Romance, Sweet Miles Morales
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:36:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27589645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCuriousCat/pseuds/TheCuriousCat
Summary: Miles was different even before she became New York's second Spider-'Man'. With a father who was a cop, a mother who was a nurse and a uncle who was (She's 90% sure) a criminal who would be normal. She's grown up with the three most important people in her life telling her different variations of 'Never leave a man behind' so it's no suprise that when she's crouched in front of the first Spider-Man as he tries to convince her to leave him trapped in the rubble she pushes away her fear and says 'No'.She's a Davis-Morales after all and her family doesn't run from its responsibilities.
Relationships: Miles Morales/Peter Parker
Comments: 32
Kudos: 83





	1. The Before.

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Lesson in Mentality](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17652626) by [strippinfor_eren](https://archiveofourown.org/users/strippinfor_eren/pseuds/strippinfor_eren). 



This story starts with Miles siting at her art desk coloring in stickers with her headphones on as she ignores the world around her, it isn't until she hears the shout of her name coming from her Dad that she zones back in. "Miles!"

"Yeah? Yeah!" She shouts back as she knocks her headphones off.

"Are you finished packing for school?" her Dad asks from the other room. She scoots her chair around a little to look at the empty suitcase sitting on her bed.

"Yeah..." she draws out awkwardly as her eyes flicker back to her closed bedroom door. She sticks the sticker inside her note book then sticks the note book into her mouth so that she can lift her laundry basket and dump it into the suitcase. "Just iorning my last shirt." She adds hoping that they will believe her. Her Mamá start semi yelling in Spanish as she starts trying to shove all of her books into her rucksack at once.

"Come on! You're a grown woman now. Let's show these teachers that." Her Dad calls as she picks up the overflowing rucksack and quickly gets into her new uniform.

"Miles!" Her Mamá shouts.

"Where's my laptop?" She asks as she bursts out of her room, her rucksack on backwards and still open. Her Mamá walks past her in her nurses uniform mumbling in Spanish as she puts on a golden hoop earring.

"If you want me to drive you, we gotta go now." Her Dad says as he almost trips on her suitcase while she searches the bookcase for her laptop.

"No, Dad, I'll walk" She assures as she looks behind the couch cushions.

"Personal Chauffeur going once." Her Dad says as he picks up her suitcase.

"It's ok" She says as she sidesteps into the kitchen, knocking into her Mamá's arm and almost spilling the tea in her hand.

Her Mamá glares at her a little and starts rapidly speaking in Spanish then adds "Miles! Gotta go." In English at the end as she hooks the land line phone back up.

Miles takes a spoon and digs it into her Mamá's breakfast rice then shouts "In a minute" before blowing on it and shoving it into her mouth. Her Dad comes into the kitchen and reaches over her shoulder to put her laptop into her rucksack then lets her get one more bite before he steers her out of the house where her Mamá is waiting. Her Mamá smothers her cheek in kisses while she tries to get away. "Mamá, I gotta go." She grumbles to her Mamá's joy.

"In a minute" her Mamá says back cheekily before giving her another cheek kiss. When her Mamá finally lets her go she calls out to Miles in Spanish as she goes down the stairs before adding "See you Friday." 

"Ok, Mamá" She calls back before saying goodbye in Spanish.

At the end of the street she pops one of her headphones over her ears and continues her walk to her 'new school' around half way there she starts encountering her old schoolmates, they are all really happy to see her. One of the more popular girls even says that she misses her which confuses then slightly upsets her so she starts slapping her stickers on things. Hanging signs, news paper holders, and even a road sign before she steps onto her untied shoelace and falls into the road with a shouted "Contra!". She lands in front of a squad car that lets off it's siren once. "Oh, come on." she sighs as her Dad steps out and looks at her. Before she know it she's sitting in the back of the car while her bags ride shotgun. "Seriously, Dad. Walking would have been fine." She says in a resigned tone.

"You can walk plenty on Saturday when you peel those stickers off" Her Dad says calmly.

"You saw that? I don't know if that was me Dad." She says a little too quickly to be convincing.

"And the two from yesterday on Clinton." Her Dad adds making her sigh a little.

"Yeah, those were me." She admits reluctantly.

After a few seconds of silence her Dad leans back a bit. "So look at that, another new coffee shop. You see that Miles?" He says in his 'small talk' voice

"Totally. Yeah." She says in an uninterested tone.

"You see that one. What's that one called?"

"Foam Party."

Her Dad actually turns away from the road so that he can look at her with an extremely amused face. "'Foam Party'? Come on. And everyone is just linin' up. You see that Miles?" He laughs a little at the end.

"I see it."

"Is that a coffee shop or a disco?" Her Dad asks as he chuckles.

"Dad, you're old, man." She says but it's a little lighter than before. In the background of her conversation with her Dad a news report goes on about the resent earthquakes that have been hitting Brooklyn but she ignores it, she's missed all of them due to her habit of sleeping like a rock anyway so she's really not invested. Her Dad grumbles when the reporter mentions Spider-Man.

"Spider-Man. I mean, this guy swings in once a day, zip-zap-zop in his little mask and answers to no one. Right?"

"Yeah, Dad, yeah" She says distractidly.

"And meanwhile, my guys are out there,"

"Yeah..."

"lives on the line, no masks."

"Uh-huh..."

"We show our faces."

She's about to answer with another agreeing noise when she spots something that fills her heart with dread. "Oh no. Dad, Dad. Speed up. I know those kids." 

"With great ability comes great accountability." Her Dad continues as if he didn't hear her. 

"That's not even how the saying goes." She says annoyed as she looks back at her Dad. 

"I do like the cereal, though. I'll give him that."

Suddenly she hears someone call her name, she ducks down and tries to cover her face. "Oh, my gosh. Don't cops run red lights?" She asks in desperation as they start taking pictures of her through the car window.

"Oh, yeah, some do. But not your Dad." He says as he points to himself with his thumb. She sinks even further in the car seat and doesn't speak the rest of the ride to her new school.

"Why can't I go back to Brooklyn Middle?" She finally asks as her Dad parks in front of the school. 

"Miles, you've given it two weeks. We're not having this conversation." Her Dad says with a tired sigh.

"I just think that this new school is elitist." She says as she leans forward in her seat.

"Elitist?"

"And I would prefer to be at a normal school among the people."

"'The people'? These **are** your people." Her Dad says with an insidious look that makes her mad.

"I'm only here 'cause I won that stupid lottery." 

"No way. You passed the entry test just like everybody else. Ok? You have an opportunity here. You wanna blow that? Huh? You wanna end up like your Uncle?" Her Dad says in an adorative voice.

"What's wrong with Uncle Aaron? He's a good guy." She asks, cutting his rant off.

Her Dad pauses for a second before he says "We all make choices in life."

"It doesn't feel like I have a choice right now." She snaps.

"You don't!" He snaps back then both of them look away from each other angrily before they both sigh quietly. She gets out of the car and walks to the front to get her bags out then pauses, looking at her father.

He looks just as defeated by their argument. "I love you, Miles" He says making a small smile quirk up on her lips.

"Yeah, I know, Dad. See you Friday." She says as she slings her rucksack onto her back and lightly kicks the door shut.

He lets her get to the top of the stairs before he activates the loud speakers, she flinches as the police siren goes off the speakers activate. "You gotta say 'I love you' back"

She whips around to stare at her Dad in shock. "Dad, are you serious?"

"I wanna hear it. 'I love you, Dad'."

"You wanna hear me say it? You're dropping me off at a school."

"'I love you, Dad'"

"Look at this place."

"'Dad, I love you'"

She sighs as she watches everyone around them looking between them like they were watching a ping pong match. "Dad, I love you." She says finally.

He looks smug as he says "That's a copy. Tie your shoes, please." People around her start laughing as she continues to drag her suitcase into the school.

She tries to start a few conversations as she makes her way to her dorm room but students here don't seem to want to interact with her and the ones that do just tease her about what just happened with her Dad. She stops trying after the third time and drops her suitcase off in her room then heads to class. The whole day is a nightmare of stress and anxiety with the amount of books she needs to carry growing by the second, by the time she makes it to her last class she's crashing. She pushes the door to the darkened room open and tries to sneak to her chair.

"You're late again." The teacher says as she pauses the movie. 

Miles shrinks a little and lets out a nervous laugh. "Einstein said that time was relative, right? Maybe I'm not late. Maybe you guys are early." No one in the room moves until a blond girl in the second row chuckles then blushes.

"Sorry. It was just so quiet." She says. The teacher redraws Mlies' attention by asking her to sit down then turning the projector back on, She hurries into the open seat next to the blond who laughed and puts her books onto the desk. "I liked you joke" The blond whispers.

"Really?" She whispers back.

"I mean, it wasn't funny. That's why I laughed. But it was smart so I liked it."

"I don't I've seen you before." The teacher interrupts their conversation with a 'shhh' as she walks in between them making both of them turn to the front of the class.

When the class finishes the teacher makes her stay behind, when everyone has filled out her teacher slides her latest test paper towards her. A small spark of joy springs up in her chest at the bright red 0/100, she makes a comment about being kicked out if she gets more. The teacher looks her in the eye and snuffs the spark out when she changes the 0 to 100 with the comment that she wouldn't have gotten a strait 0 if she didn't know what the correct answers were then she goes further and assignees her an essay about herself and what kind of person she wants to be.

When she gets back to the room she shares with her male roommate (She's pretty sure that her name had confused the one assigning rooms but she wasn't going to correct them since she was planning to leave soon anyway) she sits in front of her notepad, her pen hovers over the notepad as she tries to find the words to at least start but she can't do it. Her mind drawing blank as the empty lined paper seemed to almost mock her. The sounds of trains passing draws her eyes to her open window, she stares out of it as a smirk grows on her face. She slips out of the dorm room and runs to her Uncle's apartment, she sneaks her way up his fire escape then takes a sneaky picture of him then sends it to him. She watches him open it and sees the smile tugging at the corner of his lips when he looks at her, the stress of school melts away as soon as she sees it. 


	2. The Bite.

"What's up with school?" Her Uncle asks as he washes his dishes and she boxes with his punching bag.

"Going great! Got tons of friends." She lies.

"You can't tell me it's all that bad there. Smart guys and girls is where it's at. Place must be full of 'em." He says as he walks over and holds the punching bag for her.

She chuckles with him. "No, there's no one."

"Yo, I can't have no niece of mine on the streets with no game." He says as they both abandon the punching bag to go and sit on the sofa.

"Hey, I got game. There's a new girl. Actually, you know, she's kinda into me. You know how it is." She says before she can stop herself.

"What's her name?" He asks as he gets the popcorn out of the microwave. 

She freezes. "You know, we layin' the groundwork right now."

He chuckles louder. "You know about the shoulder touch?"

"'Course I do. But, uh, tell me anyway."

"Tomorrow, find that girl. You walk up to her and be like:" He reaches out and puts his hand on her shoulder then purrs out " ** _Hey_** " Making her laugh a little.

"You serious, Uncle Aaron?"

"I'm tellin' you, girl, it's science."

"So walk up to her and be like: Hey." She puts her hand on his shoulder.

"No, no, no, no. Like: **_Hey_** " He says through chuckles as he puts his hand on her shoulder again.

" **Hey** " She says deeply, trying to match his pitch. She doesn't even to the hand/shoulder thing which makes him laugh.

"No. _**Hey**_."

She plops her hand onto his shoulder and tries again but she can't even make it through the word, her voice turning croaky. They both laugh.

"You sure you my niece, girl?" He asks playfully just before her phone goes off. It's her Dad asking if she's done with her homework. "Is that her?" His tone is still playful but the mood for her drops.

"I should probably go. Still got a paper to do tonight." She says regretfully, she can tell the mood has dropped for him as well until he spots her open notebook.

"Yo, you been holdin' out on me? You throw these up yet?" He asks as he takes the note book from her.

"Naw, man. You know my Dad. I can't." She says but he doesn't listen.

"Come on. I got a spot you ain't gon' believe." He says as he gets up and taps her shoulder. 

"Naw, I can't. I can't. Can't" She says as she crosses her arms.... Which is how she ends up following her Uncle through a train tunnel. "I'm gonna get in so much trouble." She mumbles.

"Hey, girl. Tell him your art teacher made you." He replays.

They walk for a little then her Uncle takes a turn. "How'd you know about this place?" She asks finally.

"Did an engineering job down here." He answers then expertly climbs the metal fence standing between them and their destination, he raises an eyebrow at her so she rolls her shoulders and follows. Very poorly she must admit but she gets over after almost getting stuck at the top so she'll call it a win.

"What's up?" She says after she falls to the floor making him laugh.

"Yeah, girl. I knew we were related." He then walks forward and pulls a switch that lights up the room in front of them.

"Whoa!" She exclaims as she walks in. She shouts "Brooklyn!" and delights in the echo she receives.

"There's a lot of history on these walls." He adds as she spins to take in the whole room.

"This is so fresh." She says in wonder then turns and catches the spray paint bottle her Uncle tosses at her. She shakes it as he turns on the stereo he brought, filling the room with echoing music.

"And now you on your own, Miles." He says as he sits down to watch.

She doesn't mind as she starts entering the 'zone'. She plays with pinks, blues, oranges, yellows. At one point Uncle Aaron get's sick of watching and gets closer to see the details she's adding, since he wants a closer look she decides to use him as a stepping stool. He sways gently to the music as she stands on his shoulders at get the highest parts of her design. For the last part she stands on an overturned milk box and has him spray her outline. They both stand back and look at it in wonder.

"Wow"

"Is it too crazy?" She asks him.

"Naw, girl. Miles, I see exactly what you're doing here. Yeah, you know me and your Dad used to do this back in the day." He says with a fond look in his eye.

"Stop lyin'" She says with disbelief coloring her words.

"It's true. Then he took on the cop thing and I don't know... He's a good guy, just... You know what I'm sayin'." He tails off and she looks down. Suddenly, his phone goes off and breaks the moment. "All right, come on, girl. I gotta roll." He says as he gets up and leaves.

She gets up and starts putting the spray cans back into her rucksack. Once she's done she takes a step towards her Uncle then turns back to their art work, she takes a picture of it on her phone with a fond smile then spots the spider on her hand. She gasps in shock but is to late to stop it from biting her, once the shock passes she swats it with a bored look then follows her Uncle back out of the train tunnels.

That night she falls into an uneasy sleep as her roommate spends the night on his laptop. By the time the morning comes she groggy which is why it takes her a second to realize that her school pants are too short.

_ 'THAT'S **WEIRD**... MY PANTS SHRANK' _

Suddenly she gasps. "I think I hit puberty." Her roommate stiffens for a second before he goes back to whatever he was doing before.

_ 'I SHOULD HAVE KEPT... THAT TO MYSELF.' _

She thinks as the bell rings, she spends the walk down the hall trying to pull her pants legs down. 

_'I GOTTA'_  
_'GET NEW'_  
_'PANTS.'_

 _'WAIT!'_  
_'WHY IS THE VOICE'_  
_'IN MY HEAD'_  
_'SO **LOUD?!'**_

She turns in confusion as she walk and ends up bumping into the new blond girl.

"Oh! Are you ok?" The blond asks her.

"What?" She asks in confusion as she wipes the excessive sweat on her brow.

_'WHY AM I SO SWEATY?'_

"Why are you so sweaty?" The blond asks which is super embarrassing.

"It's a puberty thing." She says casually then blinks in shock. "I don't know why I said that. I'm not going through puberty. I did, but I'm done... So you're, like, new here, right? We got that in common."

"Yeah, that's one thing." The blond says looking just as eager to forget the whole 'puberty' thing as she was, thank god. 

"Cool. Yeah. I'm Miles." 

"I'm Gwe-- anda." She blinks at the blond in front of her.

"Wait, your name's Gwanda?" She asks just to be sure.

"Yes, it's African. I'm south African. No accent though 'cause I was raised here." Gwanda sounds a little unsure but she has more important things to worry about.

_ 'DO THE SHOULDER TOUCH NOW BEFORE SHE WALKS AWAY.' _

She slowly raises her hand.

_ 'WHY IS THIS SO SCARY?' _

_ 'AM I DOING THIS IN SLOW MOTION OR DOES IT JUST FEEL THAT WAY?' _

"I'm kidding. It's Wanda. No 'G'. That's crazy. Heh." Gwanda (Wanda?) says with a little breathy laugh. She awkwardly puts her hand on Wanda's shoulder, Wanda looks a little shocked at the contact.

" **Hey** " She says.

Wanda looks questingly at her hand then says "Okay, then. I'll see you around."

"Oh. See you." She says awkwardly and moves her hand but it gets stuck in Wanda's hair. "Sorry, umm.." She tries to pull her hand away but ends up yanking Wanda's head forward.

"Hey." Wanda says sharply.

She twists her hand slightly to see what Wanda's hair got stuck on and finds out that it's stuck on her **skin!** How? Why? "Oh, crap."

"Can you let go, please?" Wanda asks politely.

"I can't let go." She says as she continues to try to pull her hand away.

"Ow! Ow! Calm down. It's fine." Wanda says with a pain laced voice which only makes her panic more. Wanda grabs her wrist as she pulls and they end up chest to chest, Her other hand lands on Wanda's school book which turns out has the same problem as the first. "Miles, let go."

"Workin' on it." She says as they pull at each other. "It's just puberty." She adds mostly to herself to cut through the slowly growing panic in her chest.

"I don't think you know what puberty is. Just relax." Wanda says more desperately. People around them watching in confusion and excitement.

"Okay, I have a plan." She says to Wanda.

"Great." 

"I'm gonna pull really hard."

"That's a terrible plan."

"One."

"Don't do this."

"Two. Three!" As she says three Wanda drops to the floor and flips her over her shoulder, her back hurts as it hits the ground but it doesn't sting nearly as much as the embarrassment does when a random reacher marches them to the nurses office while lecturing her about childish glue pranks. She sits with Wanda in awkward silence as the nurse shaves half of Wanda's hair off. "Nice to meet you?" She says softly after her hand is freed.

Wanda glares at her reflection in her hand mirror. "Sure. Total pleasure." She says in a dead tone as she snaps the hand mirror shut. 

The sound of the door shutting behind Miles as she leaves is loud, it sounds like the shattering of a tentative friendship which hurts more than she thought it would. She looks at her still hair covered hands before clenching it into a fist and starting to walk away.

**_'_ ** _NO ONE SAW. IT'S OKAY.'_

_'NO ONE KNOWS. NO ONE KNOWS.'_

_' **EVERYONE KNOWS.** '_

The panic in her chest starts squeezing her heart as her vision narrows.

 _'EVERYONE KNOWS.'_  
_'THEIR ALL TALKIN' 'BOUT ME.'_

_ 'THEY SAW EVERYTHING!' _

_'HE KNOWS. SHE KNOWS. THEY KNOW.'_

_'WOW, SHE'S SUPER TALL.'_

_'WHY IS HE SMILING?'_  
_'AM I THE WEIRD GIRL NOW?'_

The world starts distorting, pictures of peoples laughing mouths start appearing in her peripheral vision.

_'WHAT AM I DOING?'_

_'HOW DO I STOP?'_

_'CAN THEY HEAR MY THOUGHTS?'_

_'WHY ARE ALL MY THOUGHTS SO LOUD?!'_

She thinks as she starts running through the halls, her panicking is cut short by the shouting of one of the teachers. "Hey! I know you snuck out last night, Morales!" He says as she accidentally bumps into his chest. 

_'PLAY DUMB!'_

"Who's Morales?"

_ 'NOT THAT DUMB!' _

She does the only thing she can in this situation, she books it. "Hey!" The teacher yells after as she burst through a set of double doors. She scrambles down the hall and around the corner before darting into the first open door she sees and slams the door shut.

 _'OKAY, OKAY. YOU'RE OKAY.'_  
_'YOU'RE OKAY'_

_'HE'LL NEVER FIND YOU.'_

She thinks only to freeze when she sees the plaque on the dest next to the teacher she was running from. 'Head of Security'.

_'NO.'_

She tries to dart away from the door but one of her hands gets stuck, yanking her back. "Ow!" The head of security yells at her for being in his office from the other side of the door while she tries desperately to yank her hand off the door. She manages to get her hand free but somehow she gets stuck with her shirt covering her face, she bumps into what feels like a bookshelf before tripping over the desk in the middle of the room and slaps her hand on the head of securities laptop. Great, now her struggles are being highlighted by Spider-Man's Christmas album. 

"Why is this happening?" She says to herself on the verge of tears as she stumbles around trying to get the fabric off her face. She trips on a chair and hits the wall, she tries to pull her hand free but ends up lifting herself and getting the other one stuck on the celling. The first hand comes free but also ends up on the celling, she losses her shoes before she plants them on the celling. Her hands come loose but apparently her feel are sticky as well because she's still on the celling, she manages to finally get her top off and yells "Stop sticking!" At her feet before the celling plaster crumbles and she falls onto a wheely chair, the momentum sends her out the window. "Keep sticking, Miles! Oh!" She cries out as she tries to balance on the side of the school buildings outer wall just under the window. 

She manages to make it around the side but then she's hit by a swarm of pigeons, two get stuck to her exposed hands and take venomous protest to it. The start pecking at her exposed skin before trying to fly away, dragging her with them. She's slammed into a window leading into a full classroom, she's able to yank herself away before anyone spots her but the birds do it twice more. No one sees her by some sort of miracle. The birds keep dragging her until she hits her dorm room window.

"My room!" She shouts as she flops in, the pigeons flap around in erratic patterns but she's just glad that they aren't stuck to her anymore. One of them knocks her roommates Spider-Man comic onto her face, she lifts it to move it back onto his bed when one of the comic pannles catches her eyes. 'Why is this happening?' She pulls her hand away and the page rips out of the book, another pannel on the other side of the page catches her attention 'Please stop sticking!' She tires to shake the page off of her hand but only ends up ripping out another one with her other hand 'Please keep sticking!'

_'WAIT, WAIT, WAIT.'_

_'HOW COULD THERE BE TWO SPIDER-MEN?'_

_'THERE CAN'T BE TWO SPIDER-MEN.'_

_'CAN THERE?'_

In her shock she barely notices all the paper, feathers and plaster unsticking and falling to the floor. She darts up and quickly puts on a new shirt before running out of her dorm, once she's outside she calls her Uncle.

_'COME ON, UNCLE AARON, PICK UP. **PICK UP!** '_

It goes to voicemail because that just seems to be her luck today. 

_'NO.'_  
_'NO-'_  
_'_ _NO-'_  
_'NO-'_  
_'NO-'_  
_'NO.'_

 _'IT'S'_  
_'NOT'_  
_'POSSIBLE!'_

_ 'IT'S JUST PUBERTY.' _

_'IT WAS A NORMAL SPIDER'_  
_'AND I'M A **NORMAL** KID.'_

She's running so fast that she can't stop herself, she sees the car speeding down the road she's about to run into and on some kind of instinct she jumps into a flip over the car before she lands perfectly on the other side of it. Onlookers cheer for her stunt but it only makes her panic more, she starts running again. It's dark outside by the time she's calmed down, she sits on the train and scrolls through her phone.

_'I GOTTA TELL SOMEONE.'_

She scrolls down her contacts until she lands on her Dad, she clicks his number and lets it ring once before she chickens out and hangs up. She gets off the train and stares into the train tunnel she and Uncle Aaron went down last time. "Okay, you're being crazy, Miles. You're being crazy. Find the spider. You'll see." She mutters to herself before she enters and follows the path she remembers. She enters the room without pulling the switch and shines her flashlight on the spider, it's still there, curled up on the floor where she left it. "It's a normal spider." she whispers to herself. "It's, like, boring how normal this spider is." She crouches in front of the spider and pokes it with her pen only to jump back and gasp when it glitches in and out of existence before settling again. Her shock is cut off by a loud noise from down the tunnel, she swallows and goes to check it out. She knows that this is the part in every horror movie where a person is murdered but her gut is screaming at her to go. The world starts turning blue as a ringing builds in her ears.

_ 'I'M RIGHT HERE.' _

_ 'WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?' _

Suddenly it cuts off and she has the urge to go down the tunnel to the right. She really hopes this does't end up killing her.


	3. The Fight.

As she steps through the plastic sheets hanging across the tunnel entrance the blue ringing returns.

_'SLOW DOWN! WHAT AM I DOING?'_

Three images flicker in her vision: the first a radiation sign, the second a glowing spider crawling on the sign, and the third is the logo for 'ALCHEMAX'. She pushes past them and walks past another hanging sheet of plastic, the room she ends up in is filled with leavers. The sight of them has her clutching her head as the blue ringing spikes causing a headache. Voices start filtering in her mind making her stumble, each word feels like a knife.

**"Way over there."**

_"You're like me."_

"Miles. look out."

~~"I don't wanna be a hero. Miles, **LOOK OUT!** "~~

She jumps to the side seconds before a large object flies through the wall behind her. "Whoa!" She cries out and scoots back, something behind her growls and so she pushes herself up a little and peeks out of the shattered window just in time to see something being thrown into a metal shipping container hard enough to leave a dent.

"Norman, listen to me."

_'SPIDER-MAN?'_

"I cannot let you open a portal to another dimension. Brooklyn is not zoned for that." Spider-Man says from his spider dent. She flinches when a massive form lands on the other side of her wall and the ground shakes.

"It's not up to me." It growls as he makes his way over to Spider-Man.

_'IS THAT GREEN GOBLIN?'_

"Why won't you quit?!" Green Goblin snarls as he shoves a metal support pillar out of his way like it was nothing.

Spider-Man shoots two webs at the celling and says "I guess I like Brooklyn not being sucked into a black hole." Before launching himself at the Green goblin and punching him in the face hard enough to send the giant spiraling to the ground before swinging away.

"I think I'm gonna to go." She says to herself before backing up to leave.

"Staten Island maybe. Not Brooklyn." Spider-Man adds as he swings back and boots Green Goblin in the chest, in his fall Green Goblin knocks yellow support beams. One slips out of place and heads strait for her, it hits the metal window frame then bounces back a bit before it slams into her chest. She manages to get her legs over it before it slams into the wall behind her, she pushes herself up a little but that is all she's able to do because the metal beam starts being dragged back out the window. She clings to it in fear as she's pulled out of the room, her only plus is that the beam was connected to the celling via a steady looking metal chain which meant that she wouldn't immediately be sent crashing to the ground below.

"No! No!" She shouts as she's almost knocked off and is left dangles from the now rapidly rising beam, one of her hands looses it's grip as the beam jerks to the celling. She tries to re-attach it and the beam starts turning but ends up losing her grip completely, she plummets to the ground and curls into a ball as the metal beam lands on the floor next to her. Green Goblin steps over her and starts launching bombs which sends her running, she jumps over a large metal beam and wedges herself between the train tracks and the train supply cart to avoid the explosions. This turns out to be a bad spot almost immediately when Green Goblin picks up the train cart and throws it at Spider-Man. She rolls into a stand and runs for the large brightly lit archway.

Green Goblin lands in the spot she was just in right before Spider-Man knocks him over, she runs as fast as she can and pushes the fact that she was almost crushed twice away for her to panic over when she wasn't in immediate danger. She skids to a stop right in front of the open metal shield doors just before she tips into the massive room in front of her with a startled "Whoa!" She looks around with dread "What now? What is this place?" Her questions are interrupted by Green Goblin slamming into her back sending her screaming into the room below. She skids across the floor and into a hole into the floor, her hand sticks to the metal floor plate as Green Goblin falls in and plummets into the depths below. She tries to pull herself up but is distracted by Spider-Man swinging into the room and ends up slipping, she lets out a scream of fear as she falls which seems to finally clue Spider-Man in on her location. She closes her eyes in fear but opens them again when she feels her gravity shift, Spider-Man swings them both onto a section of scaffolding then gently puts her down. 

They both breath deeply for a second as they look at each other before Spider-Man breaks the spell. "Did you know your shoes are untied?" He asks softly, like he's trying not to scare her.

"Uh-huh"

"This is a onesie, so I don't really have to worry about it." He says before he stiffens, she almost asks what's wrong but the ringing returns making her wince slightly. This time the ringing is purple and green until it evens out to blue and red, she doesn't know what exactly that means but it makes her feel safer. Spider-Man's eye covers widen comically for a second. "I thought I was the only one. You're like me." His voice is filled with wonder as he looks her over.

"I don't want to be." She admits.

"I don't think you have a choice, kiddo. Got a lot going through your head, I'm sure." He says.

She looks down for a second before looking in the eye(?) again. "Yeah."

"You're gonna be fine. I can help you. If you stick around, I can show you the ropes." He sounds slightly hopeful and it calms her down.

"Yeah." She agrees then her scaffolding perch shakes violently, she clings a little tighter as Spider-Man readjusts himself. They both look at the gigantic gun type thing as it stretches out.

"I just need to destroy this big machine real quick before the space-time continuum collapses. Don't move." He says as he jumps onto one of the barrels, he turns back to her and says "See you in a bit." then swings away before she can say anything. She watches in slight awe as he uses the spinning machine parts to launch himself onto the celling.

_'HOW DOES HE DO THAT?'_

She stands up and watches him crawl along the celling. She jerks back a little when he gets tackled by a flying purple bolt. "Man, I was in the middle of something." He says to whoever grabbed him, she trips on her feet and scrambles back when she gets a good look and the man in purple. She can tell that Spider-Man saw her reaction by the way his mask eye covers narrow before he elbows the purple man in the face. The purple man boots him onto the top of the machine then follows, all she can see of them are their shadows. She can also hear the echos of what Spider-Man's saying. "Are you mad at me? I feel like you're mad at me." She doesn't know what possess her to do it but after his somewhat cheeky quip she slowly lifts her phone up and starts recording the fighting shadows. She puts the phone down when Green Goblin rejoins the fight.

_ 'I SHOULD GO UP THERE AND HELP HIM.' _

Green Goblin roars and she turns right back around.

 _'WHO AM I KIDDING?'_  
_'I SHOULD **NOT** DO THAT.'_

Singing over the speakers breaks her out of her momentary panic, she peeks up at the windows of the viewing room across the room. "Watch out. Here comes the Spider-Man." Is whispered, it echoes around the room. "You like my new toy? Cost me a fortune, but, hey, can't take it with you, right?" The man over the speakers asks as he walks into view. "You came all this way. Watch the test. It's a hell of a freaking light show. You're gonna love this." The machine activates.

She hears Spider-Man shout "No! No, don't do this! Stop! You don't know what it could do! You'll kill us all!" Before a small metal thing descends from the celling then all noise is drowned out by the sound of rushing and crashing energy. She scoots further back and covers her eyes, trying to shield herself from the bright lights. Her eyes adjust just in time for her to spot the large falling rock speeding towards her, she jumps backwards but is crashes through the wooden scaffolding floor. She screams as she falls but she manages to latch onto some of the crossing metal poles, she looks up and watches in horror as Green Goblin slams Spider-Man's face into the energy stream. The energy starts fluctuating then it explodes.

When the dust clears she finds herself on the floor of the room surrounded by crushed and twisted metal, her first thought is finding Spider-Man. She stubbles around a large pile of metal celling tiles, under it she spots Green Goblin's massive hand and just past that she spots who she was looking for. She runs over to him and starts digging him out of the rubble. "Hey! Are you ok?" She asks, she's very relived to see him turn towards her.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm gust resting." He reassures her. He looks very beat up and she can actually see one of his eyes.

She looks him over worriedly. "Can't you get up?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I always get up." He chuckles then coughs. "The coughing's probably not a good sign." he admits, she starts digging him out again. 

Both of them snap to attention when they hear Kingpin say "Find him. Now."

"Listen, we gotta team up here. We don't have that much time. This override key is the only way to stop the collider. Swing up there, use this key, push the button and blow it up. You need to hide your face. You don't tell anyone who you are. No one can know. He's got everyone in his pocket. If he turns on the machine on again, everything that you know will disappear. Your family, everyone. Everyone. Promise me you'll do this." Spider-Man whispers as he taps her shoulder and hands her the USB. 

She looks at him and realizes what he's asking her to do, the thought of agreeing with him goes against everything she's ever known so instead she pushes any lingering fear and steals herself. "No, I promise that _ **you'll** _do this." She sees his eye widen in shock as she quietly yanks him up and over her shoulder before she climb one of the metal recks, she tilts her head in confusion as she tries to figure out a way up to the 'shut down' switch. Her thoughts are interrupted by Kingpin.

"Tombstone. We're done with tests." She quickly slides them both down in between to metal sheets, she can see Spider-Man trying to keep his coughs in as they are pressed closer together. "Get that thing ready to go again. And soon." The scientist bolts away from him. "Run faster." he says before turning to Tombstone and the purple guy. "These guys are weak." Kingpin then seems to spot the shredded remains of some of Spider-Man's suit because he roars in rage and slams his massive hands onto the ground, the suddenness of it makes her shift which ends in her knocking something over. Spider-Man's eye widens again. "What was that?" Kingpin asks his goons.

"Run!" Spider-Man whisper shouts, she listens to his request this time and grabs him before standing and bolting.

"Kill that guy." She hears Kingpin order before she hears the sound of footsteps slamming into the ground behind her.

She runs faster and adjusts Spider-Man who has passed out, at least she hopes so. She makes it back into the tunnels her Uncle showed her and with a running jump she manages to clear the top of the metal fence she was barely able to climb the first time around. She runs onto the train tracks and looks behind her, she doesn't see who's chasing her but she does see their shadow. The fluttering cape tells her that it's the purple guy, knowing doesn't help as much as she thought it would. Spider-Man shifts (in his sleep? unconscious?) and she loses her balance slightly, the USB falls out of her pocket making her scramble to scoop it up again.

Just as her fingers close around it purple guy bursts out of a pair of doors to the side and almost slams into her side. She bolts and she hears him following just as fast, the oncoming train is a surprise that she doesn't see coming though she really should have. Her eyes widen and she jumps to the celling, curling her body around Spider-Man so that he doesn't fall until the train passes. When she tries to drop down her hands get stuck, Spider-Man drops to the tracks as the purple man opens his hands and turns his fingertips into claws. She plants her feet on the celling and pushes until the cement cracks and she crumbles to the floor, she's quick to scoop up Spider-Man and bolt to the second oncoming train. Purple guy runs after her. She sees her life flash before her eyes before she jumps up and to the side, she feels the train skim her foot just before she lands on the station platform. She wastes no time in darting across the platform and jumping across to the next one as a third oncoming train squeaks against her trainer heel. 

She darts into the station bathroom and pays a homeless guy $40 to give her his clothes, She silently apologizes as she speed changes and patches up Spider-Man. She takes off his mask and shoves it in his new coat pocket before sticking a faded brown fedora on his dirty blond hair and sneaking out of the train station. She manages to catch purple guy driving away on his motorcycle before she runs all the way home. It takes some maneuvering but she's able to get Spider-Man and herself into her bedroom through her window, she accidentally knocks over her record player when she flops in and shoves Spider-Man behind the denser side of her record collection just as her bedroom door is shoved open.

"Police! Put your hands up!" Her Dad growls before he spots her. "Miles? Why aren't you at school?" She feels the tears that she's kept at bay all night well up at the sight of her Dad, she practically throws herself into his arms. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's ok. It's ok." He murmurs as he pulls her into a hug.

"Miles? ¿Qué te pasa?" Her Mamá asks as she walks in and pets her hair, she looks upas she steps out of her Dad's hug but she doesn't say anything. What exactly can she say to even explain any of what has happened tonight. "Is it the earthquake?" Her Mamá asks her.

She swallows but doesn't correct her. "Can I sleep here tonight?"

Her Dad sighs "Miles, it's a weeknight. You made a commitment to that school." He says leaving a pit in her stomach, how was she going to get Spider-Man back to her dorm and avoid the purple guy?

Her Mamá must see her stress because she cuts him off. "Jeff. She's upset."

Her Dad sighs again but relents. " Of course you can stay."

She sits on her bed in relief then reality rears it's ugly head and she tenses. "Dad?"

"Yeah."

"Do you really hate Spider-Man?"

"... Yeah. I mean, with a vigilantly, there is--"

Her Mamá crosses her arms at her Dad's reply. "Jeff, mi amor." 

He looks at her defensively. "What? He asked me. Baby, you know how I feel about Spider-Man. Come on." He walks out of the room while her Mamá walks over to her as she lies down and settles on the bed.

"Tú sabes que él te quiere mucho. That's why he's tough on you. You know that, right?" Her Mamá asks her as she sits on the end of her bed. 

"Mamá, do you ever think about moving out of Brooklyn?" She asks instead of answering her.

"Our family doesn't run from things, Miles." She says before leaning down and kissing her forehead.

"Yeah, I know." She turns onto her side and watches the light disappear as her Mamá closes her bedroom door, as her parents start talking she quietly gets back out of bed and tends to Spider-Man. She re-strips him down to his boxers then rips some of her old shirts to bind his newly discovered broken ribs as well as cover some of his cuts. Once his visible injuries are taken care of she lifts him into her bed and covers him in her blanket, she then takes one of her pillows and sets herself up on the floor. She spends most of the night watching his chest rise and fall to keep herself convinced that he wouldn't die in his sleep but she's only human. Soon she joins the man in the land of dreams.


	4. The Other Spider-Man.

Miles wakes to the sound of soft panting and little gasps of pain, it takes her sleep addled brain a minute to remember what happened the night before. When she does she shoots up and over to the man, he's clearly in pain so she goes to pull the blanket back. Her plan to check his injuries is derailed by him snapping awake and grabbing her wrist, the suddenness scares her. His eyes meet hers and widen in acknowledgment in the split second and electrical pulse travels down her arm and slams into him, he jerks once then falls limp.

_ 'OH GOD, OH NO.' _

_ 'DID I JUST **KILL** SPIDER-MAN?!' _

_ 'PLEASE, PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD' _

Her fingers find his pulse point and she sags in relief when she feels it flutter under his skin.

_ 'OKAY, NOT DEAD.' _

_'JUST...'_  
_'A MAN MY PARENTS DON'T KNOW'_  
_'SLEEPING IN MY BED...'_

 _'I'M SO DEAD!'_  
_'SO, SO DEAD.'_

She pushes the thoughts away and curls her fingers around the USB in her pocket. Looks like Spider-Man was getting his wish after all. She quickly gets changed, then she writes him a little note which she tucks into his closed hand.

**Hey, I'm sorry for shocking you...**   
**I don't actually know how I did that but I hope I didn't hurt you to much.**   
**Last night I wrapped some of your injuries so don't pull on them.**   
**Oh! Your suit is in the pillow case.**

**From Miles Morales (That's my name.)**   
**P.S. Don't worry, I have the USB. Looks like I'm making that promise after all, huh.**   
**P.P.S. Please don't die in my bed, Mamá will be upset.**   
**P.P.P.S. Here's my number, (***) ***-****, call me when you wake up.**

Once done with that she barricades her bedroom door then hops out the window. She picks a random direction and just walk, after a while she spots a costume store.

_ 'YOU NEED TO HIDE YOUR FACE.' _

_ 'NO ONE CAN KNOW.' _

_ 'HE'S GOT EVERYONE IN HIS POCKET.' _

She swerves into the store and sees a wall dedicated to Spider-Man, she picks one at random since none of them have sizes then she walks up to the counter. The store clerk smiles as she puts the costume down. "We're friends, you know." He says conversationally.

She feels her world constricting as he taps the price into his till.

_'I'M REALLY DOING THIS...'_

"Can I return it if it doesn't fit?" She asks, her voice filled with worry as much as she tries to mask it.

"It always fits eventually." He assures with a knowing smile, she feels like he knows everything for a second then her eyes catch the sign hanging behind him ' **NO** Returns Or Refunds. **EVER!** ' Oh...

She pays him an extra dollar to use his bathroom to put the costume on. It's too small so she ends up putting her clothes on top, she looks at herself in the bathroom mirror as she slips the mask on then takes a deep breath and walks back out. 

_'OKAY.'_  
_'SO I'M DOING THIS.'_

She checks her phone, no new messages.

 _'SO NO MENTOR, FINE.'_  
_' TO THE NEXT BEST SOURCE.'_

She finds an alley way to hide in then she dumps a bunch of Spider-Man comics onto the floor and starts speed reading. This, is how she ends up staring up at a tall building. She checks the comic in her hands just to be sure, yup, still a guy about to jump off a roof. She tucks the comic into her rucksack and enters the building, it doesn't have a lift she jogs up the stairs until she's pushing the roof door open. 

She steps onto the edge of the roof and looks down, she takes a deep breath and shakes her hands out... She turns right around and runs back into the building. She takes the stairs down two at a time until she's back outside looking up. Her eyes shift to the left to see the even bigger building, she dismisses it as soon as her eyes lock on it. She heads to the smaller one in between them both, another set of stairs later and she's back to standing on a roof. She jumps a few times in place and does a few stretches before she narrows her eyes at the edge.

 _'YOU CAN DO THIS.'_  
_'SPIDER-MAN IS COUNTING ON YOU!'_

_ ' **YOU CAN DO THIS!** ' _

She runs at the edge, completely prepared to jump off, when she steps on her untied shoelace. She stumbles right at the edge and accidentally launches herself over the edge with a scream. She lands on a flag pole and gets launched towards the building across the street then she hits the the power cables, getting sling-shot back into the buildings side. Her sticky hands don't work and she falls, she screams to loud that she swears that she could see the letters following her down. She smashes into a shop sign, lands on a taxi, then rolls off and hits the pavement with a ***crunch***. She rolls onto her back in pain then her eyes widen, she quickly reaches into her pocket and pulls out the super important, one of a kind, USB. She slowly raises it and watches it spark uselessly in her hands.

_'SHE CAN'T DO THIS,'_

The sky starts getting dark by the time she picks herself, she doesn't really have a direction. At this point she's fine following her gut, she should check up on Spider-Man but this feels more important. She ends up wandering through a cemetery which isn't creepy, at all. She walks down stone path as the snow falls around her, she ends up in front of a grave for 'Ben Parker'. It hurt to see it, like she's at the grave of a family member. Everything feels like it's crumbling around her, she feels like she failed. She swallows and pulls her mask up. "I'm sorry, Mr. Parker. I was given something, a key. I think I really messed it up." She looks at the USB before clenching her hand around it and putting it back into her pocket. "I want to do what he asked. I really do. But I can't, I'm sorry. I'm not sure I'm the girl. I can't **do** this without him." In the corner of her vision she spots someone coming up behind her, she gasps and yanks her mask down.

"Hey, kid." The man says as he reaches for her, she panics and goes to slap his hand away. As soon as her skin touches his she shocks him, he shouts in pain as he is launched away. She blinks when she feels something hit her chest, she looks down and sees one of Spider-Man's webs before she's yanked after the man. She pushes herself up from her surprise snow angel and looks down at the web, her eyes follow it until she sees the other end attached to the mystery man. He looks a lot like Spider-Man with a few small differences, he also sets of the weird thing that happened to her and Spider-Man... the first? He's like her. 

She crouches next to him to see if he was ok when suddenly a light is shined at her. "What you doin' over there?" She snaps her eyes to the voice, it's a police officer. Crap. "Freeze! P.D.N.Y." She holds her hands up then runs.

"Stop!" The second officer shouts. She gets a little bit away before she's yanked to the ground by the web of her chest.

She glares at it. "Are you kidding me right now?" She gets up and runs back to Spider-Man two.

"Stop! Stop!" Officer 2 yells as she and her partner run towards her.

"I gotcha. I gotcha." She says as she drags Spider-Man two through the snow.

"Hey, kid. Drop the body." Officer 1 shouts. She drags Spider-Man two up into a hug hold as she runs to a statue. "Hey, kid. Get over here!"

"Come on, now!"

She ignores them both and swings Spider-Man two over her shoulder and somehow manages to hit his web shooter, launching them both into the air. "See you, officers!" She shouts as they swing away only for them to swing back. "Aw, come on." They fly through the air wildly, constantly jerking each other due to the web connection. She feels her phone vibrate in her pocket but she doesn't dare try and answer it for fear of dropping it. 

They smack into a wall then tumble to the ground. "Hey, kid!"

"Kid, come on. Now!" Both officers corner her. "Put 'em up, kid!" She puts her hands up and uses the back of her hand to activate Spider-Man two's web shooter. All three of them watch as the web sails through the air and lands on a moving train.

She looks back at the officers as the web tightens and she feels Spider-Man two being dragged out from behind her. "Uh... adiós?" She hears Spider-Man two's shout as he smacks into Ben Parker's grave stone before he goes limp again. She goes flying out of the cemetery and into a very busy road. She drags herself up the web then climbs up Spider-Man two's back trying to reach his web shooter while a police car screeches after her. She almost manages to grab it but her shifting her weight makes them both spin. The spinning ends up with them ping-ponging between two trucks before landing on the back of some guys bike, the guy crashes into an open taxi door sending them flying once more. She lands on top of Spider-Man two and accidentally smashes his face into the road. "Sorry." She yells as she pulls his head up. Somehow she manages to find her feet which helps for about five seconds before they're both in the air again. She feels Spider-Man two stirring and lets out a joyous shout. "Yes! I didn't kill you!" 

He snaps up to look at her in shock. "Who are you?"

"Who are _you?_ " She counters. Her phone rings again, she hopes that it's not important. 

"Why are you trying to kill me?" He says, countering her counter. 

"I'm not. I'm trying to save you." She says as they spin in the air, Spider-Man two smashes his face into a lap and she winces. He then hits a tree and gets his head stuck in the head of a snowman... Okay, so she can see his point. They smack into the side of a bus, she gives the confused teen sitting on the bus a nod as she and Spider-Man two are slowly dragged across the window before they are yanked off. The train **_finally_** comes to a stop and they just kind of dangle for a moment before the web snaps and they land in the middle of the pedestrian crossing. "Hey, maybe you guys can go around?" She asks the random people crossing the road as she lies there trying to catch her breath, they listen which is nice. "All right. Thanks, New York."

After a minute she gets up and looks around, she's near Uncle Aaron's apartment which is good. He's away on business so she can stash Spider-Man two there. She puts an arm around his waist and pretends that he's her drunk Uncle for the rest of the trip. The first thing she does when she enters the apartment is tie Spider-Man two to her Uncle's punching bag, the second is to check her phone. Two miss calls from an unknown number and three new texts, same number. She clicks the messages open as she sinks into her Uncle's sofa.

 **Unknown:** Hey, Miles! It's your house guest, Peter Parker, here. Thanks for the patch up, I'll get you some new shirts. Promise. ;)  
 **Unknown:** Don't worry when you come back and don't see me. I've gone to my Aunt's. Here's the address '20 Ingram Street' come by when you're free so we can talk game plans :D  
 **Unknown:** I tried calling you a couple times but you didn't pick up. I'm a little worried to be honest, text me back ASAP.

She blinks in confusion before she remembers that she gave Spider-Man her number, she sighs in relief. She sees that he's already names her 'TheNewOne' so after changing his caller I.D to 'TheOldOne' she texts him back.

 **TheNewOne:** Sorry for missing your calls, Peter! I was... preoccupied.  
 **TheNewOne:** I'm at my Uncle's at the moment but I'll stop by tomorrow, okay?  
 **TheOldOne:** Oh, thank god. I was super worried! Tomorrow is fine! I'm suddenly housing some friends, I'll introduce you when you get here. :P  
 **TheOldOne:** Goodnight, Miles. Big day tomorrow! :D  
 **TheNewOne:** Night Peter. :3


	5. The Lab

Miles has been playing games on her phone for a few hours by the time she hears Peter two (?) waking up. She gets up and stands in front of him with her arms crossed. His eyes open in slow twitches then he looks at her and tilts his head to the side a little. "You're like me." He says after a second.

"I got some questions." As soon as she says that he starts jerking and trying to break out of the robes holding, she flinches back slightly. The punching bag slowly turns so that he's facing away from her, she lifts her mask and gets a little closer to him. "Why do you look like Peter Parker?" He uses the tips of his toes to turn the punching bag back to face her.

"Because I am Peter Parker."

"Then why is your hair different? And why are you older? Why is your body a... a different shape?"

"Pretty sure you just called me fat."

"No, no. Just..."

"You don't look so hot either, kid. Most superheroes don't wear their own merch."

"I'm seventeen."

"Whatever."

"Are you a twin?"

"No."

"Are you a clone?"

"Stop it."

"Am I a clone?"

"You're not even close."

"Are you from another dimension? Like a parallel universe where things are like this universe but different? And you're Spider-Man in that universe? But somehow traveled to this universe, but you don't know how?"

"Wow. That was really just a guess?" He says, the both of them had been walking/spinning slowly around this whole time.

"Well, we learned about it in physics." She admits.

"Quantum theory" He adds thoughtfully.

"This is amazing! You can teach me like Peter said he would."

"Why can't he teach you?"

"He's very injured."

"Yeah, right." He scoffs making her frown.

"Look, I made a promise to him."

He smirks at her as he turns. "Okay. Here's lesson number one, kid. Don't watch the mouth. Watch the hands." He says when he faces away from her fully, he then sticks his hands out and does jazz hands as the robes fall away. She gasps in shock, just before he kicks the punching bag into her. Her back smacks into the door as one of her shoes flies off. He brushes himself off and walks towards the window.

"Peter, seriously--" He cuts her off by shooting a web over her mouth, he stops half way out the window and she can see his shoulders sag as she tries to get the web off her face.

"Trust me, kid. This'll all make you a better Spider-Man, Woman?" He jumps onto the fire escape railing and shoots a web, he steps off to swing away then glitches with a pained shout and falls. 

She runs onto the fire escape to check on him and sees him hit the railing for the floor below before he slams onto the one below that. "Hey, are you okay?" she asks.

"No, I'm not."

"What's going on with your body?" she asks as he rolls onto his back.

"I don't think my atoms are really jazzed about being in the wrong dimension." He says sarcastically before violently glitching again. She makes her way down, she's now a floor above him. "Look, I'm not looking for a side gig as a Spider-Person coach. I got a lot going on in my own dimension. Like a lot."

"With great comes great--" She starts saying as she steps on to the metal stairs leading onto the floor he's on. 

He cuts her off as he spins towards her angrily. "Don't you dare finish that sentence. Don't do it! I'm sick of it." He growls as he points at her before he tries to jump away again. He glitches and falls before catching himself, what a surprise. "Want my advice? Go back to being a regular kid." He says as he dangles.

"I don't have a choice!" She shouts to him as she leans over the railing. "Kingpin's got a supercollider. He's tryin' to kill me!" 

"Wait a second. What did you just say?" He says as he pulls himself up.

"Kingpin's tryin' to kill me."

"Who cares about that. Where's the collider?" He asks as he walks up the wall.

"Brooklyn, under Fisk Tower." 

He immediately turns and and walks back down. "Goodbye."

"Where are you going?" She asks insidiously. 

"When it runs again, I'll jump in and get my life back." He answers as if it's the easiest thing in the world.

"You can't let them run it. I'm supposed to destroy it so it never runs again or everyones going to die" She yells as she shakily tries to follow him down the wall. 

"'Or everyones going to die.' That's what they always say. But there is always a little bit of time before everyone dies and that's when I do my best work." He says as he flips and lands on a car. 

She glares at him from where she's desperately trying to keep stuck to the wall. "Aren't you going to need this?" Her voice is smug at the end. He ruins it by being, well, him.

"Aw, you have a goober. Give it."

"Wait, no, Not so fast. He called it an override key." She says as she stretches out of his reach.

"There's always a bypass key, a virus key, a who-cares key. I can never remember, so I always call it a goober. Give it."

"I need it to destroy the collider." 

"I need it to go home." He reaches a little further so she shoves it in her mouth.

"I'll swallow it. Don't play with me."

"What?"

"I said--Hey!" he webs it out of her mouth then jumps onto the opposite wall.

"The collider created the portal that brought me here." He starts walking up that wall making her crawl up her own after him.

"And I have to--"

"Did you break this?"

"No, it broke." One of her hands unsticks, throwing her off balance for a second. "I don't remember what happened."

"See, this is why I never had kids." He grumbles. 

"Can't we make another one?" She asks.

"No, _we_ can't do anything. Thanks to you, I have to re-steal what your guy stole from Alchemax and make another one of these." He drops the USB. She jumps from her wall to his, catching it as she goes. 

"If I don't turn off the collider after you leave, everyone in this city, my parents, my Uncle and millions of others, will die. And you're just gonna go home and leave me here to figure it out for myself?! You good with that Spider-Man?" She growls. He doesn't reply, instead he steps over the roof and disappears. She sighs dejectedly and puts her head on her knees. 

After a second he pops his head back over the side of the roof. "What are you doing?" He asks.

"Making you feel guilty. Is it working?" 

He blinks then turns. "How could it--? No. Look at me. Does it look like it's working?" He turns back to stare at her, he blinks again then takes a small step back. "No, no. It's not--" He chuckles a little as he points at her then suddenly yells into his inner arm. "No! No! No! Don't let her win!" She tilts her head and stands back up, confused. He looks at her again then sighs. "All right, kid. You win. Come on, we don't have a second to lose." She smiles as she walks up the rest of the wall, not noticing that she doesn't wobble once.

She regrets following him as she sits here watching him stuff his face. "Mmm. I love this burger. So delicious. One of the best burgers I've ever had. In my universe, this place closed six years ago." He doesn't even swallow before talking, it's so gross. "I don't know why. I really don't. Mmm." They both watch the waiter drop the bill on their table before he walks away. Peter two turns back to her. "You have money, right? I'm not very liquid right now."

She puts her hands on the table. "Can we focus?" She asks, She's starting to think that this guy might be a bit of an asshole.

"Mm-hm. Sure."

"The other Peter--"She starts before he interrupts her

"You gonna eat that?" He grabs it before she can say a word and takes a bite.

 _'DON'T KILL HIM.'_  
**_'_** _DON'T KILL HIM.'_  
_'YOU NEED HIM HIM TO HELP YOU.'_

 _'HE CAN'T DO THAT IF HE'S **DEAD.** '_  
_'GOD, IT'S A TEMPTING THOUGHT THOUGH.'_

"I'm listening" He says with a piece of onion sticking out of his mouth. 

She cringes a little but continues. "The other Peter said he was gonna be showing me the ropes. But times short right now."

"Wow." He doesn't look impressed at all.

"You got any Spider-Man tips you can tell me right now?"

"Yeah, I got plenty. Disinfect the mask. You're gonna want to use baby powder in the suit, heavy on the joints. You don't want any chafing, right?"

She looks at him, slightly resined. "Anything else?"

"Nope, that was everything."

"I think you're gonna be a bad teacher." She can't help but say.

"Look up were Alchemax is." He says, mouth full of chips.

She does because she's not got anything better to do. "A privet Technological campus in Hudson Valley, New York." She reads off then gasps. "You could teach me to swing on the way there." She then pretends to shoot webs at him making him laugh. 

Once he's done eating he leads her to... the bus stop? She looks up at him and sees him smirk, this asshole. She refuses to speak to him on the bus to the campus, choosing to send 'Her' Peter a text instead since the sun was coming up.

 **TheNewOne:** May not make it until late. I made a... friend that I need to help first. I'll come by after. Promise.

"I'm not swinging to the Hudson Valley, Miles. Not after a hearty burger breakfast." He says from the seat next to her. "Keep your legs fresh. You're gonna thank me later." She doesn't get a text back the rest of the _**way**_ but she doesn't blame him, it is way to early to be awake. When the bus stops they hike into the woods and get changed. She adds a cape which he really disapproves of, going to far as to pull it off her and call it disrespectful. 

"So how do we trace Peter's steps?" She asks when they have Alchemax in their sights.

"That's a good question." He mummers as they both crouch behind the big rock and out of sight of the campus. "What would I do if I were me?" She'll die before sh admits to tentivly coping his thinking pose. "Got it. Step one: I infiltrate the lab. Two: Find the head scientists computer."

"That lady with the bike is the head scientist. I saw her in this documentary." She adds quickly.

"Cool! Step three: I reexamine my personal biases. Step four: I hack the computer."

"It's not technically hacking."

"Not now. I lost my train of thought. Step five: Download the important stuff. I'll know when I see it. Step six: Grab a bagel from the cafeteria and run."

"So, what am I doing?" She asks, still confused as to why she just saw that whole plan as a comic book in her head.

"Uh, step seven: You stay here. You're look out. Very important."

"Look, man. You gotta teach me how to do Spider-Man stuff or I'm not going to be able to help."

He stretches, popping a bunch of bones in his back, before swinging away. "Watch and learn, kid! I'll quiz you later."

"Why did I get stuck with the janky, old, broke hobo Spider-Man?! And I'm **not a kid!** " She growls and hits the rock she's hiding behind, it splits in two making her blink. "That's new." She says then hears the sound of cars approaching, she peeks over her rock and sees Kingpin get out of the car. "Kingpin." She whispers in shock as he enters the building. She ducks behind her rock and takes a few deep breaths before she darts out and runs in the direction Peter two went in.

 _'WHAT AM I DOING?'_  
_'WHAT AM I DOING?'_  
_'WHAT AM I DOING?'_  
_'WHAT AM I DOING?'_

Once she hits a part of the building where there aren't any guards she runs up the side of the building and peeks over the roof. She watches Kingpin enter with dread. Before she jumps into the roof vent that she saw in the comic, she tumbles all the way down. Before speed crawling through in search of Peter two. She looks out of each vent grate and ends up bumping into Peter two's butt. "Peter!" she whisper yells just as her phone goes off, announcing that she has a new text. She's so glad she put it on silent.

He turns to her and narrows his eye covers. "What are you doing here?"

"Kingpin's here. Just move over." She says as she crawls semi under him so that they can look through the same grate.

"You're stepping on my foot. Go back outside." Peter two complains.

"No! I can't just sit here and let Spider-Man die without doing anything about it. I'm not doing that." She hisses back, he stares at her unblinking. "What?"

He looks away slightly. "Most people I meet in the workplace try to kill me, so you're a nice change of pace." They share a moment of calm understanding before they are interrupted by by the lead scientist.

"Mr Fist! Look at this data. I know you can't really understand it, but these are really good numbers." They watch her type in the password.

"And I got the password." Peter two says smugly.

She turns the computer to Fisk before they can see what she opens. "Mr Fisk. If we fire again this week there could be a black hole under Brooklyn. And you see this? And this? This is multiple dimensions beginning to crash into each other..." 

Peter two starts making the bla bla bla motion with his hand, she has to fight to keep a strait face. " This is pretty standard Spider-Man... Spider- _ **Person**_ stakes. You get used to it. Watch this. He's gonna say 'You have 24 hours.'"

"You've got 24 hours." She gives him a side eye.

"What this means is there could be a rupture in the space-time continuum." The lead scientist tries to explain as she follows them out.

"Ooh. That's bad. Actually, everything she said was bad. I was lying before." Peter two says as he opens the vent and crawls along the ceiling. What the Fuck was that supposed to mean. Peter two makes his way over to the computer and starts typing... oh fuck, she can **see** the words 'Clackity Clackity Clack' floating around him. Why has her life turned into this? She tries to enter the same way as he did while the lead scientist complains on the other side of the glass but she gets stuck. Peter two looks up at her annoyed. "What are you doing bud?"

"I can't move." She admits slightly panicked.

"Okay, relax your fingers. We don't have time. Just let go. Be in the moment."

"I am in the moment. It's a terrible moment."

"They're right there. They're gonna to see you. Miles, you gotta unstick. What do you do to relax?"

The last word hits her, ok, she can do this. "Relax. Okay, okay, okay." She starts quietly singing, letting the song of her choice fill her mine.

"Oh, for crying out loud." Peter two mutters, she ignores him. She adds a few dance moves then crashes into the table bellow her. Ow. "Teenagers: Just the worst.... Miles, where did you go?" He says as he jumps over the computer desk.

She blinks in confusion. "I'm right here."

"Where? I can't see you." He says as he slowly spins around.

"I'm right in front of you." He stops and narrows his eye covers, she looks down and sees her hands. They are translucent. "Can Spider-Man turn invisible?" She asks in slight awe and slight panic.

"Not in my universe." He says before he pokes her right in the eye.

"Aah! You just poked me in the eye!"

"This is incredible. Some kind of fight or flight thing." He puts his hand into her face a few times and once her heart calms down she feels this weird rippling sensation.

"What's that?" She asks right before the lab door starts opening, her heart rate jumps in panic and she ripples again.

"Remember this password. D-G-F-A-M-P-E-S-A-N-D..."

"Slow down!" She hisses quietly. He does not.

"-4-$-3-5-8-7-6-5-3-4-5-4-5-3-5."

"I need to write it down!"

"Download the schematic."

"How do I do that?"

"While I turn on the charm." The door opens and the lead scientists eyes widen in surprise.

"Spider-Man?"


End file.
